The next time you hear from me I will be back in school trying to juggle my rodeoing and classes, so I am savoring these last few weeks of freedom. 

In the next three weeks, I will be attending eight rodeos, and they are some big ones. Most notably for me, my hometowner: the Farm-City Pro Rodeo in Hermiston, Ore.  

This is the first year Farm-City will have breakaway roping, which is just like roping except the calf is not roped and tied, and there is $20,000 added to the winning pot. The roping was limited to the top 80 girls, and we each have two guaranteed runs.

This is a huge deal for breakaway ropers, which is actually completely new to professional rodeo as of a few years ago. 

Prior to the last few years, breakaway roping was only featured in amateur rodeos and was never associated with the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

Anyway, back to the Hermiston rodeo; I am also running barrels in the Friday night performance with my horse, Keeper. I am ecstatic about this because as soon as the crowd hears “hometown cowgirl,” they start going bananas, and Keeper thrives off of it. 

Other than Hermiston, I have Omak, Wash; Canby, Ore; Moses Lake, Wash; Caldwell, Idaho; Corvallis, Ore; Redmond, Ore; McMinville, Ore,  all before school starts.

I will definitely be soaking in the simplicity of just being able to compete rather than trying to do homework while driving to the rodeos, like I normally do during the school year. 

This weekend, I am going to the Watershed Music Festival, which I am missing two circuit rodeos for. I wanted to go to Watershed so that I could have a weekend for myself and my friends, reminding myself that I am still a young and I need to savor these few years before I am a full time adult. 

However, now that I am second in the circuit I am a little stressed and anxious that I am missing these rodeos. I am really hoping it does not set me back too far, but I still have really good rodeos coming up where I can make it up.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to start my column this summer and get a jumpstart on mixing my love for journalism with my passion for rodeoing. I cannot wait to continue growing my column when the school year starts back up and show you exactly what it is like to be a Cougar Cowgirl.